Adulting
by CammieZachZammie
Summary: Cammie is well into her twenties and is facing all the traditional challenges adulthood brings. Having assumed her entire life that being a spy would be the hardest part, she is still not used to the constantly changing drama between relationships, friendships, jobs, and society. Living in the Big Apple isn't the easiest, but she manages. Z/C, canon compliant, OCs


_Beep. Beep. Beep_

The alarm clock kept beeping annoyingly on my phone, and I groaned, nestling deeper into the warm covers, and burying my head under my pillow,

"Turn that shit off," groaned Zach, burying himself deeper as well, cuddling against me, his body heat proving delicious relief from the cold that came from waking up. I groaned again, and stopped my alarm, noting the time was 6:30 A.M. Which meant I was due for my shift in two and a half hours.

"Is now a good time to remind you that _you're_ making breakfast today?" said Zach, his voice still groggy from sleep. I gave a small moan of despair, throwing the covers off of myself, exposing me to the cold air of the apartment. I had to remember to call Joe to fix that damn thing because New York in November did _not_ play. I shivered, throwing on the hoodie I had thrown on the chair by the desk yesterday night after we came home from dinner.

"You don't want to come help me?" I pouted, trying my best to wiggle out of cooking. I definitely could cook enough to survive, but it wasn't exactly my greatest passion.

"Mmm. I'm good, sweetheart, I'm sure you're more than capable of making french toast and bacon," said Zach, his eyes closed and a smile playing on his lips as he snuggled into the duvet.

"Asshole," I laughed, then walked into the kitchen of our tiny apartment, pulling out pans and batter and getting to work.

Even with our CIA jobs, we both still had to take up small side jobs to pay the bills, as New York City was ridiculously expensive to live in, and risking our lives a couple times a week didn't pay well, it seemed. Our apartment had the "lived-in look" that I always craved, with pictures of us and our friends and family strewn over the house. It had been our home for a couple of years, and the one constant in our ever-changing lives.

I yawned again, as I mixed in the vanilla extract into the french toast batter, the delicious smell wafting its way into my nose. While I waited for the stove to heat up, I checked the pile of mail on the entryway table and opened the news app on my phone. I sifted through the mail, which was nothing out of the ordinary-bills, my student loans, and ads begging us to buy houses and insurance.

As I went back to cooking, humming quietly and playing music from my phone, I heard sound in our bedroom, then the shower turning on, confirming Zach had _finally_ gotten up. I went back to my thoughts, wondering if the economic auditor position I had seen would fit well with my hectic life as an agent. It would certainly pay more than my measly Starbucks barista wage and could help us start looking for a slightly bigger apartment. I had also started considering doing freelance translation work, which might put my minor in Foreign Relations to good use.

A couple minutes later, with the sizzling bacon now on a bigger plate and a stack of french toast on the counter, I sat at the breakfast island, and poured myself from the orange juice bottle as I saw Zach, damp hair and wearing PJs with his work shirt walk into the kitchen and sit down at the island with me.

"Good job, it looks like we still have a usable kitchen," he laughed, kissing me on the lips. I laughed and smacked his arm, while he started piling french toast and bacon on his plate.

"You work today?" he asked, nodding at my Starbucks apron that was hung up by the coat rack. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. "Yeah, Maria texted me late last night and asked if I could come in for Renee. I don't know why she bothers asking for so many days when she can't work for half of them!" I really, _really_ needed to quit that job, but after college, I definitely was never going back to bartending, so Starbucks it was until I got another job that at least _looked_ like it could pay the bills without our income from the federal government.

I glanced at my watch, despite knowing it was 7:30 on the dot, then glanced back at Zach suggestively. "You know…" I started, but Zach cut me off with, "Cam, I literally _just_ showered, you couldn't have said this earlier?"

I huffed, my hands falling to my lap, "Well I was _going_ to, but then you insisted that it was my turn to make breakfast, and I got up. You can shower in five minutes. Please?"

He laughed, like he always did when we repeated this exact same "argument" every other week. "I guess I can make some time for the great chef this morning," he kissed my nose, "Give her some compliments." He kissed me, this time on the lips, and I kissed him back greedily.

He ran his hands up my arms as he grabbed my hand and led me our room, not even bothering to close the door.

"Can we get Chinese tonight? I've been craving lo mein for like a week, and I didn't get to eat _any_ when I was in Beijing last week," I said after we had finished and were sitting in a sweaty mess on the bed.

"I was going to say Indian food, but Chinese works too," said Zach, getting up again and throwing on his shirt and shorts. I got up as well, putting on my blouse and dress pants and spritzing myself with a bucket of perfume to mask the scent. Zach grabbed my shoes and threw them at me, and I caught them easily, sliding them onto my feet. I rummaged around for my hat before putting my hair into a bun and going into the hallway.

"I'm going to shower again, and then I work from home today, so I'll see you later. I love you," said Zach, pecking me on the lips and following me to grab a towel from the hall closet. I kissed his cheek and said, "Love you, too. Bye."

I closed the door behind me and quickly walked to the train station, barely making the train that made me on time to work.

Walking into work, I greeted Maria, my manager, and Michelle and Liam, the people who usually worked mornings with me. Maria pointed at the headset on Michelle's ear, and I went over to her to relieve her of her drive-thru duty (which absolutely everybody hated,) and she walked over to the front counter, giving me an eye-roll when she saw the number of people waiting in line. I shot her a grin and got to work on the drinks in front of me.

I got out at around 3 PM, with Liam and Michelle reminding me I had promised them a group outing to the bar tomorrow night, and that I'd better show or they would have my head.

I loved being a barista-to an extent. It got me out of the house when I wasn't on missions, it was flexible, my co-workers were amazing, and I got all the coffee I could possibly want. What wasn't there to love about it? But my student loans didn't pay themselves on, and despite having gone to Georgetown, a near-Ivy league school, I was struggling to put my degrees to use. I had double majored in Economics and Psychology, with a minor in Foreign Relations, but the economic field had collapsed on itself, and the psychology field was overinflated with psychologists and other broke college students.

I had been hinting at wanting to move either into a bigger apartment, or a house in Virginia, as I hated living in such a cramped space. I was also kind of hinting at the possibility of wanting to maybe, _just_ maybe, having kids to Zach, but as we hadn't actually discussed it, everything was up in the air. We were still young and had time before I started freaking out about having kids. We were 25, in the "prime" of our careers, but a part of me was absolutely certain I wanted to have at least one kid, a conversation I was not at all ready to have with Zach.

As I rushed through the cold of the busy streets, I heard a ringing in my purse, from my personal cell phone. I rummaged through the bag until I pulled it out, recognized Liz's secure phone line, and quickly picked up. "Hey, you," I said into the phone, my face breaking out into a smile.

"Hey, Chameleon. How's everything going?" came her strong Southern accent through the phone, and my smile just got wider. I had certainly missed Liz.

"Just got out of work, and traffic hour isn't treating me really well. Other than the fear that my legs will quite possibly freeze off, I'm doing amazing, Lizzie. How are you and Jonas?" There was a pause on the other line as if she was figuring out what to say. "Well, I have some news for you, and I'm going to be in New York City tomorrow for interrogation of a foreign suspect, so I was wondering if you wanted to meet up in the afternoon? Maybe bring Zach with you? I feel like I haven't seen him in _forever_."

"Yeah, of course, I'll text you a really good cafe by our apartment that serves the most _amazing_ hot chocolate you've ever had. We can meet up around 1 if that works for you. Can I at least get a hint on the big news, Bookworm?" I said, as I walked into the lobby of my apartment building, and started walking towards the elevator.

"Yes! That sounds great, Cam. See ya tomorrow," said Liz, and I replied the same way, hanging up the phone, my smile infinitely wider than it was when I got out of work. I unlocked our apartment door, and walked in, the smell of lo mein and dal makhani reaching my nose.

"This, my dear Zachary, is why we can't pay the bills," I said as greeting, putting my coat and apron on the coat rack, and stepping into the warmth of the apartment. Zach waved my complaint away and walked up to greet me with a kiss, his hands falling to my waist.

"How was work?"

I shrugged. "It was work. Oh, we're going out with Liz tomorrow to Sammy's Bistro, apparently, she has some news, and she wants to catch up with you. I'm also going out with Liam and Michelle to a bar tomorrow, and they asked if you wanted to come, too."

"Aren't you a busy bee all of a sudden?"

I laughed, and shook my head, "I leave the apartment like, _once_ a week, and it's usually because it's my turn for groceries. Speaking of which, we're running low on eggs, mind picking some up before work?"

"Yeah, sure. I was going to ask if you wanted me to send in the check for your loan debt while I'm at it, because I feel like you totally forgot about it," he said pointedly, as we moved to sit on the couch with our food. I rolled my eyes, "I didn't _forget_ , I just chose to ignore the fact that I paid tens of thousands of dollars for a college education I can't even use right now. What do you think Liz's big news is?"

"Maybe Jonas finally proposed to her. Bex told me that she's been talking her ear off waiting for him to propose," said Zach, and I shook my head, "Honestly, knowing Liz, she would have called us the second he did it. Maybe she's moving to New York?"

"But why would she feel the need to tell us in person? I totally think he proposed," said Zach, digging into his dal makhani and offering me chopsticks for my lo mein, which I happily took.

"Guess we'll find out sooner or later," I said in between noodles.

 **A/N I have noooo idea where this story is going, but I recently re-read the series after like...three years of not having touched FanFiction or the books, and since it's NaNoWriMo, I thought I'd force myself to finally put my ideas on paper. I've been rereading my cringy old writing, mainly the things I wrote at age 12 or 13, and seeing my perspective on high school and adult life is kind of cute because now I know it is noothing like I imagined it to be. Anyway, hope you all have a marvelous day!**

 **~Ale**


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